American Diesel replaced all six injectors at a cost of more than $3000. I can’t believe it.

That makes:

– new alternator

– new windshield

– four new tires and a good spare

– new lift pump

– new intercooler boot(s)

– all six new injectors

The truck’s running great. We’ll see how it does on the freeway.

This really is my dream truck. My one big concern about getting a newer diesel pickup was having to replace the injectors sooner or later. Well, now I’ve got a new set of injectors. As long as I buy good fuel and keep up on fuel additive, they should last a long time.

Johnny Widner called late in the day on Friday, saying he had replaced the intercooler boot and although the truck is now making 40 psi boost, it still doesn’t have the right level of power. He is sending it over to American Diesel on Monday to get checked out, since they have better scanners.

He replaced the lift pump, but that did not resolve the issue. So he took the truck over to a diesel mechanic friend of his.

They tested the fuel pressures. He says the injection pump is great, very consistent 5500-6000 psi pressure. After researching, I realize that’s *idle* rail pressure, and indeed that’s right where it should be, typically 5500-6000 psi (and up to, I think, 26000 at WOT). I’m not sure if they hooked an actual gauge up to the fuel rail or did this using a scanner.

He said they did more testing afterward, presumably using a boost leak tester and soapy water, and discovered a boost leak from one of the intercooler boots. He estimates 5 PSI boost is being lost due to this leak.

He has the part on order from Chrysler and will put it on as soon as he gets it, hopefully tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll have time to test it out and I can take it home for the weekend.

Loving the truck, but it’s got a few issues. The power drops off above 2000 RPM — a characteristic symptom of a dying lift pump. I cleaned the K&N filter using a K&N Recharger kit, hoping that would help (since the filter minder said it was restricted), but it didn’t. Also, interestingly, the filter minder still said it was restricted after cleaning.

Then, when I drove to work this morning, the CEL kept coming on, the gauges would drop to zero (sometimes the temp/oil/volts, and sometimes just the fuel). Then the gauges would slowly drift back to normal, and the CEL would turn off. It did this about a dozen times.

And, the idle hangs anywhere from 1000 to 1200 RPM. It’s supposed to be 825-875 RPM.

I made a list of these things and took the truck over to Unique Motor Sports. They’re going to check it out. The mechanic said he probably can’t look at it until tomorrow. I told him to please let it sit overnight and then try driving it, since the gauge issues go away once it’s warmed up.

A lift pump isn’t that expensive. I hope they will simply replace it.

Dave, the salesman who sold me the truck, gave me a ride back to work in our Tahoe.

I’m going to go look at an ’06 F-250 at Unique Motor Sports this morning. It’s cheap ($9k), so I imagine it has some issues.

Mary and I talked about it, and this time, what I’d like to do is this: rather than getting rid of this truck when (not if) it develops problems, I’m going to look at swapping a Cummins into it.

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I bought a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins 24v from Unique Motor Sports in Albuquerque. $19,950. They wanted to give me only $7k in trade for the Tahoe, and $2k down cash, but I said no to both. I said we’d have to work on the trade value for the Tahoe, and I didn’t want to put down any cash. I also said I wanted the windshield replaced, and a spare tire and rim.

The best they were able to do was a 60 month loan at 10%, $413/month. But then — and AFTER I had signed the sales contract, after they no longer had any incentive to do so — the salesman called me back and said he had gotten me BETTER financing. 2.25% for 72 months! $300 a month! Holy cow.

They replaced the windshield and located a spare tire and rim. And gave me $9k in trade on the Tahoe.

And they did all this after not even seeing the Tahoe. Just took my word for it.

Having great credit and making good money is nice.

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The only immediate item of concern on the Ram is, I’m pretty sure the cooling system has green and orange mixed. The radiator has green in it, and the overflow bottle has orange. Now, that might just mean that the system used to have orange, was flushed out, but the overflow bottle wasn’t. That’s not a huge deal. But I need to look into whether I need to dump it and replace, since the orange and green don’t mix. If I don’t dump it, need to look into whether SCAs are an issue.